The Wedding Date
by jhm64892
Summary: Karen is maid of honour at Ivy and Jimmy's wedding and the best man is Dev, her ex-fiance who dumped her without warning the day before their wedding. So she hires Derek to be her date but she didn't think that she'd fall in love with him
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N – This idea came to me as I was watching the movie the Wedding Date starring two very talented actors from Smash: Debra Messing and Jack Davenport, so I decided to write a fanfiction based on it**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Smash or The Wedding Date**_

Karen Cartwright had never been someone who refused to help her friends so when her best friend from when she'd worked on Broadway, Ivy Lynn, called and said she was getting married to Karen's friend Jimmy Collins and she wanted Karen to be her maid of honour, Karen had politely accepted. It wasn't until Karen discovered that the best man would be her ex-fiance, Dev Sundaram, the 27-year-old began to worry. Dev had unceremoniously dumped the beautiful brunette actress the day before their wedding two years previously and Karen still hadn't moved on.

So here she was in the first class section of the plane headed to New York waiting for the man she'd hired to pose as her date for the three day theatrical saga that would be Ivy's wedding. She was clutching onto the arm rests of her chair, her knuckles almost as white as snow"First time flying?" came a male questioning tone from the seat behind her.

Karen turned around and began to ramble "No, I'm just nervous because I'm the maid of honour at my best friend's wedding and the best man is my ex-fiance who dumped me the day before our wedding and I haven't properly spoken to the bride in years and..." realisation suddenly dawned on her and she blushed a bright red "and you were just being nice and polite. Let's start this again, I'm Karen," she recovered giving the man her trademark kind smile.

"Dennis," he replied with a slightly judgemental smile.

Karen stood up and briskly walked towards the flight attendant's cart where she quickly mixed herself a drink. Upon receiving a questioning look from the flight attendant she began to explain "I'm not an alcoholic and I'm used to flying, I do it all the time but I just really need a drink. My best friend is getting married and I'm the maid of honour and the best man is my ex, so I hired someone to be my date to make him jealous, you know, so I just really need whoever sits down in 3B to be at least cute,"

She received a nod of understanding before hearing "Well hello 3B," from the now clearly gay flight attendant who proceeded to push her forward and into the first class cabin.

Karen slowly walked towards the man with ash blonde hair and a fairly muscular form who'd just sat down in 3B "Derek Wills?" she asked nervously.

"You must be Karen," he said in a deep British accent.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N – I know it's been a while since I updated this story but I've had exams and a few other things going on at the moment. **_

Karen woke up 5 minutes before landing after having slept for the majority of the flight. Her hair was a matted mess swept across her face and her make-up had smudged "Morning," she heard Derek say brightly as she turned in her to see him next to her. She slunk down in her seat as she grumbled about her appearance and the embarrassment of being seen in such a state.

When they got off the plane, Karen went to a bathroom to redo her hair and make-up as well as change into a dress for the engagement party. Once inside the bathroom, she unzipped the suitcase she'd brought with her and began picking out her dress.

She had a black off-the-shoulder knee-length one which seemed as though it was designed for a funeral rather than an engagement party so she put it back and grabbed the next one: a deep pink dress with a slit up the side, she replaced it after deciding that it was a little bit too sexy for the occasion. Eventually, she settled on an ice blue knee-length dress with a bateau neckline. She put it on and then set about doing her make-up.

Karen left the airport bathroom with her hair up in a chignon and her make-up relatively natural but with smoky eye-shadow. She saw Derek waiting for her and immediately started to worry "Please don't tell me you're wearing that tie," she said with a sigh.

"What's wrong with this tie?" he said sounding slightly offended.

Her eyes bore into him and the offending tie which matched her dress almost exactly "There's nothing wrong with it per say. It's just we want to like we match but not like we're matchy, matchy and this, this is matchy, matchy," she said pointing first to Derek and then to herself and back again.

"You think people will think we're trying too hard," Derek said to which Karen nodded in affirmation feeling as though she'd hired a mind reader for a date, "Love, here's a tip," he began to lean in closer to her making her take a sudden intake of breath as she drank in the smell of his cologne "If you look people in the eye, they won't notice what you're wearing,"

Karen breathed in the scent of his cologne again and felt her eyelids begin to flutter and her legs turn to jelly. Derek guided her and the bags to a waiting taxi. He politely opened the door so that she could get in and then proceeded to pile his bag and her six into the trunk.

About five minutes into the car journey, Karen began to say "I just don't feel comfortable in this dress now, driver, I'm sorry I don't know your name, can you stop somewhere near a restroom please?"

The driver stopped the taxi outside of a bar named Table 46 and Karen went to the boot and took out the suitcase with her dresses and brought it inside the bar. Once in Table 46's small bathroom she opened her suitcase and began to go through it picking out several dresses to try on.

The first was a barely there purple cowl-neck number which she decided to save for the hen's night after trying it on. The next was a navy blue one-shoulder dress with a thigh high slit which she tried on and then put back.

Eventually, she decided on a dusky pink knee-length dress with a pencil skirt which she paired with a black trench coat. She stepped outside into the cool New York February breeze and walked over to the cab, replaced her suitcase in the trunk and got into the taxi.

Finally, they arrived at the boutique hotel where Ivy and Jimmy were holding their engagement party and Karen and Derek stepped inside after telling the taxi driver to wait for them. Karen showed the Maître D her invitation and he let her and Derek through into the party, taking her coat from her beforehand.

"Karen," a familiar voice said from behind and Karen turned around to see Eileen Rand.

"Eileen, how are you? I heard about Hit List's success congratulations," Karen said politely.

"Thanks, although it was nowhere near as good as it would have been if you'd continue to play Amanda. Julia told me how amazing your performance in Gamine is and I look forward to seeing it," Eileen kindly replied, making Karen blush at the mention of the musical film she, Julia Houston and Tom Levitt had worked on from its infancy. Eileen's eyes finally saw Derek "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met, I'm Eileen Rand," she continued, extending her hand.

"Eileen, this is my boyfriend Derek Wills, Derek this is Eileen I think I've told you about her. I worked with her on Hit List before the whole Dev thing," Karen explained.

"Ah, yes you did tell me, it's a pleasure to meet you Eileen," Derek said as he shook Eileen's hand.

Karen smiled before saying "We'd better get going inside, Ivy will _kill _me if I don't see her before the speeches start," the end of the statement had a nervous giggle to it but Eileen decided not to think anything of it as Karen dragged Derek off somewhere where they wouldn't be heard. When she found somewhere she immediately said "We need a story, you're a therapist, we just started dating and you're crazy about me," she took a huge wad of cash out of her purse and told him "Here's the six thousand, count it,"

"I trust you," Derek replied with a smirk.

"Count it," Karen repeated leading Derek to flick through the money as she watched.

"I'll cover expenses but if you want to get intimate then we'll have to talk money before anything happens," he told her.

"Oh that won't be necessary. I find the exchange of sex for money morally sickening," she announced before realising what she was saying. When she had realised she apologised politely saying "I'm sorry, no offence,"

"Do me a favour and look at this for what it is, a business transaction. That way you won't feel the need to apologise,"

"I'm sorry," Karen repeated.

"It's also rather annoying,"

They walked away from the spot and were immediately spotted by a young, clearly gay man "Iowa, what the hell happened to you?" he asked as he walked over and pulled her into a hug "Pull over for a quickie?"

"No, of course not," Karen replied with a smile.

"Whatever you say Iowa, now who is this?" Bobby said, a flirtatious smile playing on his lips.

"Hi, I'm the new boyfriend it's nice to meet you," Derek said and watched as Bobby's flirtatious smile turned into a disappointed frown.

"Bobby, get over it aren't you and Sam together now?" Karen scolded.

"How did you know? You barely talk to any of us," Bobby replied, feigning offence.

"Julia keeps me in the loop," Karen told him.

Bobby stepped aside to go towards some of the other people "Pretender!" came a familiar shout.

"Marilyn," Karen sighed using the old nickname for Ivy as the two came into a hug.

"Who's the wolf?" Ivy asked looking in Derek's direction.

Karen stepped out of the hug and right into Derek's arm before saying "Ivy, this is my new boyfriend Derek, Derek this is Ivy,"

"Hi," Ivy said before talking to Karen again "You know what I love about getting married?"

"There's finally an excuse for the whole world to revolve around you?" Karen guessed in reply, it was more of a statement than a guess.

"Of course," Ivy replied, her friend knew her better than expected "Well, I get the feeling that Bobby's going to take to the stage for the speech I banned him from giving, so I'll have to get going,"

Once Ivy was gone, Derek felt compelled to ask "What's with the nicknames?

"When we first met, we were in competition for the role of Marilyn in Bombshell, which she got, hence the nickname of Marilyn. Then when I got the role of Amanda in Hit List she gave me the nickname of Pretender after one of the songs, the whole wolf thing, don't worry that just means you're hot and the whole nickname of Iowa, that's something Bobby and the other Bombshell ensemble members came up with because I'm from Iowa originally,"

"Aah, right, got it,"

Then came Bobby's voice saying "Okay, so now we're all here, I'm going to start my speech. Welcome, to what I'm sure will be Broadway's wedding of the century, of course we all thought this would be the second Broadway wedding within our little group," Bobby watched and Karen blushed before hearing an "Oof," as Ivy kicked him "but that's not what we're here for. Jimmy, you've been a part of our little family for a while now, and this big wedding just makes it official, by the way if you liked this speech, you can see me as the new Joe DiMaggio in Bombshell at the Lily Hayes theatre on Broadway," he finished.

Karen couldn't help but laugh at the little bit of self-promotion Bobby had done at the end of the speech, getting over her initial embarrassment "Typical Bobby," she said quietly as Derek gave her a questioning look.


End file.
